Yannick Read, who some may remember as the creator of the BOND bike, is a bicycle insurance company owner by day and an evil bike designer by night. With all of his projects, his goal seems to be to chide drivers and raise awareness of cyclists in the U.K.. His latest creation is The Hornster, and it packs an air-powered train horn on the front of a two-wheeler.Powered by a scuba tank of compressed air, the Hornster is capable of letting loose a 178 decibel blast. It can do this thanks to the heavily modified frame Read has built to support the apparatus, as well as a triple-horned Airchime KH3A which was taken from a train.
Like the BOND bike, the Hornster is designed to raise awareness. Read writes:
“The same quietness that makes bicycles such a civilised way of getting around makes them vulnerable to inattentive motorists – the Hornster is a wake-up call for drivers who don’t pay attention to bikes.”
Unlike the BOND bike, this thing is apparently for sale. The cost is pegged around $8,000, though there doesn’t seem to be a place to actually make that purchase. Yet.
(ETA via BoingBoing, Thanks, Cathy!)
- Forget horns, this bike has a chainsaw
- To protest a silly ticket, cyclist crashes into everything
- Here’s Darth Vader riding a unicycle and playing the bagpipes
